History Main / BreakUpBonfire

* In ''Film/WaitingToExhale'', after getting dumped for another woman, Bernardette dumps all her man's belongings into his [[ThePreciousPreciousCar Precious Precious Car]] before setting it all on fire.

A variation both of DefenestrateAndBerate and BurnBabyBurn and a subtrope of LetThePastBurn.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 1, upon receiving the program advertising his former mistress, Siena's, next performance, Anthony immediately throws it to the fireplace, burning it; indicating that he has moved on and ready for a new start.

* A woman in Music/VanHalen's "Right Now" video.

* The Music/GreenDay song "Whatsername" is about the singer reminiscing about an old girlfriend whose name he can't remember. In one line, he mentions that he "made a point to burn all of the photographs."

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "One More Minute":

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 1, upon receiving the program advertising his former mistress, Siena's, next performance, Anthony immediately throws it to the fireplace, burning it; indicating that he has moved on and ready for a new start.

* On reality show ''Series/{{Cheaters}}'', there was an episode where the woman set her cheating partner's possessions on fire.

** Monica, Phoebe, and Rachel burn mementos of their exes when they find themselves all single on Valentine's Day and decide to do something to "cleanse" their bad luck. The firemen who attend when it inevitably gets out of control tell them that Valentine's Day is one of their busiest nights of the year, for exactly that reason. In the extended cut of the episode the firemen deliver a rehearsed speech of safety tips for future bonfires which ends with advice on letting go of their painful memories and learning to love themselves.
** In Season 4, Rachel's crush, Joshua, has to buy a lot of new clothes as his ex-wife set all his old clothes on fire. Apparently the only things he was able to save were the suit he was currently wearing and "what turned out to be a skirt". He later reveals he keeps on buying clothes since he likes Rachel.
* Discussed in episode "Happily Ever After" of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' when Ted is dealing with the fact that he was left at the alter and is seemingly fine. Marshall tells him he should go crazy and let it out, perhaps even following his own advice from a time when Marshall and Lily were broken up. Marshall says he should have followed Ted's advice and should have set all Lily's stuff on fire.

* A variation on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is where Ron Swanson burned down effigies of his ex wives after divorcing them.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 1, upon receiving the program advertising his former mistress, Siena's, next performance, Anthony immediately throws it to the fireplace; indicating that he has moved on and ready for a new start.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': In season 2 episode 1, upon receiving the program advertising his former mistress, Siena's, next performance, he immediately throws it to the fireplace; indicating that he has moved on and ready for a new start.

* In ''Film/FiftyFifty'', Adam finds out his girlfriend cheated on him. He and his best friend Kyle take her huge abstract painting out to the garden and start throwing eggs at it, then they throw a knife, then a hatchet and cut it with a big pair of garden shears. Finally they set it on fire, watch it burn... and then say they actually like it this way better and joke that they could hang it somewhere.

* In ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'', Ryuji decides he needs to let go of the past, and burns [[the pictures of him and Ayumi that she gave him]]. This is almost a year after they broke up, and he's been in a new relationship for months when she comes back to town and gives him the stuff. Neither of them bear the other any ill will, they just recognize that they don't belong together.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime''. [[spoiler:The cutscene that plays after the WhamEpisode shows Bentley looking at his photo of Penelope in heartbreak[[note]]he later [[MustashVandalism vandalizes]] it after their break-up to signal his newfound hatred of her[[/note]], while [[EvilAllAlong Penelope]] just casually tosses her photo of Bentley into a fire, signaling that she doesn't truly care about his feelings]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''Manga/ShonanJuaniGumi'', Ryuji decides he needs to let go of the past, and burns [[the pictures of him and Ayumi that she gave him]]. This is almost a year after they broke up, and he's been in a new relationship for months when she comes back to town and gives him the stuff.

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* ''Manga/FutariEcchi'' plays with this by having Misaki attempt to get over her unrequited crush on Makoto by trying to burn a photo that she has of him. She cannot get herself to do it, though, and simply hides it in the far corner of her wardrobe.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Memento}}'' where the protagonist suffers from short-term memory loss and keeps disposing of his murdered wife's personal belongings in an attempt to get over her death. [[spoiler:We later discover he's disposed of evidence that he'd already caught her killer before the events of the movie, as his hunt for her murderers is the only thing that gives him purpose.]]
* In the French movie ''L'Appartment'', the male protagonist collects all the clothes of his lost love, puts them in the bathtub and sets them on fire while crying.
* Natasza from ''Film/{{Jasminum}}'' burned up her ''entire house'' after her fiance never appeared at the wedding.
* ''Film/{{Colette}}'': After Colette leaves him, Willy orders Huon to burn the original manuscript for her first novel ''Claudine''. [[spoiler:Huon actually saves it.]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' in the season 4 episode "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E7TheInitiative}} The Initiative]]", Xander comes across Harmony as she's building a bonfire of Spike's stuff. Cordelia cuts up Xander's stuff and burns his picture in "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish}} The Wish]]".
* Discussed in episode "Happily Ever After" of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' when Ted is dealing with the fact that he was left at the alter and is seemingly fine. Marshall tells him he should go crazy and let it out, perhaps even following his own advice from a time when Marshall and Lily were broken up. Marshall says he should have followed Ted's advice and should have set all Lily's stuff on fire.
* On reality show ''Cheaters'', there was an episode where the woman set her cheating partner's possessions on fire.
* Rosa of ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' recommends this to Charles, after his painful breakup with Vivian. However, Boyle gets second thoughts and starts trying to pull stuff out, then tries to douse his hands in Rosa's drink, which happens to be hot coffee.

* ''Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful'''s Bridget burns her husband Deacon's stuff after finding out that he has been sleeping with her mother and gotten her pregnant. She takes particular glee in throwing his ashtrays into the mix--"Kissing you was like licking one of these! I HATED it!"

* ''Series/{{Decoy}}'': When Michele from "Night of Fire" found out her boyfriend was married, she set all the dresses he gave her on fire, resulting in her being institutionalized. As a result, when the warehouse next to her workplace burns down a few years later, she's the prime suspect.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Rajesh's parents split up before their 40th anniversary. Raj later talks to his mum on the phone, and his friends ask him how she is. He says she's pretty good. She bought the book ''Eat, Pray, Love'' and used it to set his father's Mercedes on fire.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Jessie}}'', Emma breaks up with her boyfriend when she discovers that he's been hanging out with [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Luke]] behind her back (this also results in Luke breaking off his friendship with the boy), and Luke tells [[ServileSnarker Bertram]] to throw out everything he touched. Bertram happily responds that that includes Luke and Emma.

* The Music/TaylorSwift song "Picture to Burn" is about burning up pictures of her ex.

* In the video for Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine song "Lover to Lover".

* "Cry Me a River" by Music/JustinTimberlake contains this line: "Your pictures got burned, now it's your turn to cry..."

* Music/{{Adele}}'s "[[Music/TwentyOne Rolling in the Deep]]" video has a paper cityscape being burned.
* "That's What I Call Crazy" by Creator/LucyHale:
-->''I went and tore your pictures up\\
built a fire in my bathtub\\
painted my toes while I watched them burn\\
then put out the fire with your T-shirt."
* {{Exaggerated}} in the video for Music/PoetsOfTheFall's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di7NMssrqsE "Daze,"]] where [[TragicMistake Hamartia]] the MonsterClown reacts to a female attendee leaving his MasqueradeBall like a villain scorned, setting fire to her car, with her in it, ''and'' the ball as a whole.

* A variation in ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', after Jimmy's ObliviousToLove nature leads him to dating a Heloise look-alike, Heloise angrily rips up her StalkerShrine of him and tosses the remains in a vat of acid.

* In the ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10473209/1/Promised-to-Me Promised to Me,]]'' this happens ''twice'', on both parts of the HoYay relationship of Russia and America...which is probably PlayedForDrama / RuleOfDrama ... and Tear Jerker territory:

** In Season 4, Rachel's crush, Joshua, has to buy a lot of new clothes as his ex-wife set all his old clothes on fire. He later reveals he keeps on buying clothes since he likes Rachel.

* In ''Film/WaitingToExhale'', the woman dumps all her man's belongings in ThePreciousPreciousCar and sets it all on fire.

** Monica, Phoebe, and Rachel burn mementos of their exes when they find themselves all single on Valentine's Day and decide to do something to "cleanse" their bad luck. The firemen who attend when it inevitably gets out of control tell them that Valentine's Day is one of their busiest nights of the year, for exactly that reason.

* A variation on this trop occurs in ''Theatre/BeMoreChill''. Jeremy and Michael are best friends (with some HoYay subtext), until Jeremy gets a supercomputer implanted in his brain to teach him how to be cool, which eventually leads to him calling Michael a loser, causing Michael to have an anxiety attack. The next time we see him, Michael is smoking marijuana and burning mementos of their friendship.

A variation both of DefenestrateAndBerate and BurnBabyBurn.